A guide to leveraging opportunities in a world of constant chaos and disruption.
The coronavirus pandemic has been the catalyst for a wave of major disruptions that are affecting every industry worldwide - from small businesses on the high street, to corporate giants like Virgin Atlantic, who have grounded 85% of their planes and asked workers to take 8 weeks unpaid leave.
Although the pandemic presents a multitude of problems, knowing that it’s often not the problem that defines who we are - but how we respond to these problems, presents everyone with an array of opportunities.
So what options do you have whilst the whole world goes into lockdown? We’re glad you asked...
Prepare your soil and plant some seeds.
To run a successful business you need to balance your time between making money now and investing in your future. In the current environment, people are stocking up on essentials and saving money to prepare for the uncertainty of the situation. As a result of this, for the majority of small/medium sized businesses, making money from selling their regular products/services is like trying to squeeze water out of a stone. If you consider yourself to be in that majority, then investing in the future of your business would be a smart strategy to follow.
“How can I invest in my future when money is so tight”
By using your brain and the unlimited supply of free tools and information available online. Use the time available to you now to get strong foundations in place, so you are more prepared than ever for when the economy begins to settle down and return to normal.
If you’re sitting at home and scratching your head, thinking about where to begin, then our 10 step innovation challenge is a great starting place (it's free, and will be forever). It is the exact process that we used ourselves to innovate our business, and we are still following it in every decision we make when considering a new project or product.
The idea of creating this free challenge was generated by following the process we will teach you in this 10 step challenge, that's how much we trust that it works, learn more about it here.
Take care of the lemons you already have
Many businesses have implemented remote working or "Work from home" to help with the social distancing efforts. Working remotely is the best option for most businesses to remain operational whilst implementing social distancing / self isolation. There are some links below that Google’s digital garage team put together which might be useful to you if you and your team are working remotely :)
For workers:
- 6 tips for better video calls More >
- Tools for better remote working More >
- Staying focused with mindfulness More >
For business owners:
- Keeping customers updated with Google My Business More >
- Achieving a balanced and flexible workforce More >
- Running brainstorming sessions remotely More >
Even whilst working remotely, if there is little/no business coming through your digital doors, then you need to innovate in order to bring cash into the business.
Think about how you could leverage your existing assets to innovate your business and start bringing in sales again. If you need help creating an innovation plan and structuring your thoughts into an actionable strategy, this free guide will be useful to you.
Give some lemons to those who have less
If your lemons can't go on ice, can they be put to use for others in need? Identify your core assets and rethink how you can utilise these to help people in need. To name a few ideas:
- Got a van used for deliveries? - Help your neighbours get the supplies they need.
- Got an online marketing company? - Help spread awareness of important information.
- Got a food company? - Help get essentials to those who are most vulnerable.
Need help creating a profitable way of utilising your existing assets whilst also helping those who are in need? Our Innovate to Survive challenge will guide you through this process.
We know there are plenty of articles floating around the internet with advice on what you can be doing in the current situation. We've done our best to take it further by giving you 10 steps you can follow to make the most of this tough situation. Give it a try and let us know where we can make it better for you and others like you.
We hope this blog post has been useful to you.
Please let us know what other topics would be useful to you and we'll do our best to get some useful resources out to you.
Have a great Customer Obsessed week :)
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